Sourced and curated.

Seize the day, put no trust in the morrow!

Horace

23 BC

★ 8.9

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

Jesus

Matthew 7:7 · 60

★ 8.5

Go West, young man.

Horace Greeley

1870

★ 8.3

Treatise · Military treatise

Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be defeated.

Sun Tzu

The Art of War · 475 BC

★ 8.3

Film · Crime (film) · Epic (film) · Crime · Epic

Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.

Michael Corleone

The Godfather: Part II · 1974

★ 7.8

Autobiography and memoir

Our life is frittered away by detail…. Simplify, simplify.

Henry David Thoreau

Walden · 1854

★ 7.8

Use a little wine for thy stomach's sake.

1st Timothy 5:23

★ 7.7

Song · Pop music

All we are saying is give peace a chance.

John Lennon

Give Peace a Chance · 1969

★ 7.6

Personal journal · Philosophical literature

Be like a headland of rock on which the waves break incessantly: but it stands fast and around it the seething of the waters sinks to rest.

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations · 180

★ 7.6

Film · Comedy (film) · Comedy

My advice to you is to start drinking heavily.

Bluto

Animal House · 1978

★ 7.3

Film · Martial arts (film) · Drama (film) · Martial arts · Drama

Wax on, wax off.

Mr. Miyagi

The Karate Kid · 1984

★ 7.3

Essay

Always do what you are afraid to do.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Essays: First Series (Emerson) · 1841

★ 7.2

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Jesus

Matthew 6:33 · 60

★ 7.2

Play · Comedy (play)

Eat no onions nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath.

Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.

A Midsummer Night's Dream · 1599

★ 7.2

Film · Teen (film) · Drama (film) · Teen · Drama

John Keating

Dead Poets Society · 1989

★ 7.2

Film · Prison drama (film) · Drama (film) · Prison drama · Drama

Get busy livin' or get busy dyin'.

Andy Dufresne

The Shawshank Redemption · 1994

★ 7.2

Speak softly and carry a big stick.

Theodore Roosevelt

1900

★ 7.1

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

Proverbs 3:5-6

686 BC

★ 7.1

Epigram

You should hammer your iron when it is glowing hot.

Publilius Syrus

Sententiae · 43 BC

★ 7.1

Film · Comedy (film) · Comedy

Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.

Dean Vernon Wormer

Animal House · 1978

★ 7.0

See many skies and seas.

Gustave Flaubert

1857

★ 7.0

You don't ever have to do anything sensational for people to love you.

Fred Rogers

2002

★ 7.0

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

Thomas H. Palmer

1840

★ 6.9

Film · Animation (film) · Musical (film) · Animation · Musical

Always let your conscience be your guide.

Jiminy Cricket

Pinocchio · 1940

★ 6.9

Science fiction

There's no secret to balance. You just have to feel the waves.

Frank Herbert

1985

★ 6.9

Short story

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

Samuel Beckett

1989

★ 6.9

Film · Comedy drama (film) · Comedy drama

Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suite on hire purchased in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats that you've spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose life...but why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?

Mark Renton

Trainspotting · 1996

★ 6.9

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Steve Jobs

2005

★ 6.9

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying: And this same flower that smiles to-day, To-morrow will be dying.

Robert Herrick

1648

★ 6.9

We must travel in the direction of our fear.

John Berryman

1942

★ 6.9

Film · Coming of age (film) · Sports (film) · Coming of age · Sports

Remember kid, there's heroes and there's legends. Heroes get remembered but legends never die. Follow your heart, kid, and you'll never go wrong.

The Babe

The Sandlot · 1993

★ 6.9

If ye would go up high, then use your own legs! Do not get yourselves carried aloft; do not seat yourselves on other people's backs and heads!

Friedrich Nietzsche

Thus Spoke Zarathustra · 1883

★ 6.4

Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life-learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

Robert Fulghum

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten · 1988

★ 5.9

Personal journal · Philosophical literature

Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations · 180

★ 5.6

Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Thus Spoke Zarathustra · 1883

★ 5.6

Love your Neighbor; yet don't pull down your Hedge.

1754

★ 5.5

This above all, to refuse to be a victim.

Margaret Atwood

Surfacing · 1972

★ 5.5

Song · Reggae music

Don't gain the world and lose your soul, Wisdom is better than silver and gold.

Bob Marley

Zion Train · 1980

★ 5.5

Looke ere ye leape.

John Heywood

Proverbs (Heywood) · 1580

★ 5.4

When the Sunne shineth make hay.

John Heywood

Proverbs (Heywood) · 1580

★ 5.4

Play · History (play)

Press not a falling man too far!

Stand by your man And show the world you love him, Keep giving all the love you can.

Henry VIII · 1613

★ 5.4

Song · Country music

Tammy Wynette

Stand by Your Man · 1968

★ 5.4

There is... Only a single categorical imperative and it is this: Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.

Immanuel Kant

The Metaphysics of Morals · 1785

★ 5.3

I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations-one can do either this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it-you will regret both.

Soren Kierkegaard

Either/Or · 1843

★ 5.3

When you get into a tight place, and everything goes against you till it seems as if you couldn't hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that's just the place and time that the tide'll turn.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

1869

★ 5.3

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that's the stuff life is made of.

1746

★ 5.2

Love your solitude and bear with sweet-sounding lamentation the suffering it causes you.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Letters to a Young Poet · 1929

★ 5.2

Hello babies. Welcome to earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies- "God damn it, you've got to be kind."

Kurt Vonnegut

1965

★ 5.2

Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.

James 4:8

★ 4.9

Play · Tragedy (play)

Weigh’st thy words before thou giv’st them breath.

Othello · 1604

★ 4.8

Stay hungry, stay foolish.

Steve Jobs

1974

★ 4.6

Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation.

Alasdair Gray

2004

★ 4.4

Newspaper

Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97: Wear sunscreen. If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now...But trust me on the sunscreen.

Mary Schmich

Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young · 1997

★ 4.3

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

Gautama Buddha

511 BC

★ 4.0

Play · History (play)

While you live, tell truth and shame the devil!

If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself.

Henry IV, Part 1 · 1597

★ 4.0

Novel · Dystopian fiction

George Orwell

Nineteen Eighty-Four · 1949

★ 4.0

Travel light and you can sing in the robber's face.

Juvenal

Satires · 127

★ 3.9

Philosophical literature · Religious literature

Hear the other side.

St. Augustine

391

★ 3.9

Take counsel in Wine, but resolve afterwards in Water.

1733

★ 3.9

Be slow in chusing a Friend, be slower in changing.

1735

★ 3.9

What you would seem to be, be really.

1744

★ 3.9

If you’d lose a troublesome Visitor, lend him money.

1744

★ 3.9

Do get all on fire and be as cross as you please.

Susan B. Anthony

1856

★ 3.9

Being totally honest with oneself is a good exercise.

Sigmund Freud

1897

★ 3.9

Film · Martial arts (film) · Drama (film) · Martial arts · Drama

First learn stand, then learn fly. Nature rule, Daniel-San, not the mind.

Mr. Miyagi

The Karate Kid · 1984

★ 3.9

TV program · Comedy (TV) · Comedy

Treat yo'self.

Tom Haverford

Parks and Recreation · 2011

★ 3.9

Magazine

It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive.

Maya Angelou

2013

★ 3.9

And do thy duty, even if it be humble, rather than another's, even if it be great. To die in one's duty is life: to live in another's is death.

Bhagavad Gita

200 BC

★ 3.8

While we're talking, envious time is fleeing: seize the day, put no trust in the future.

Horace

Odes · 23 BC

★ 3.8

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.

1st Peter 5:8

★ 3.8

Play · Comedy (play)

No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'en. In brief, sir, study what you most affect.

Love truth, but pardon error.

The Taming of the Shrew · 1594

★ 3.8

Voltaire

1738

★ 3.8

Hide not your Talents, they for Use were made: “What’s a Sun-Dial in the Shade?”

1750

★ 3.8

Never complain of that of which it is at all times in your power to rid yourself.

Adam Smith

The Theory of Moral Sentiments · 1759

★ 3.8

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other one thing.

Abraham Lincoln

1855

★ 3.8

Film · Crime (film) · Drama (film) · Crime · Drama

Hey, you wanna hear my philosophy of life? Do it to him before he does it to you.

Terry Malloy

On the Waterfront · 1954

★ 3.8

Rest and be kind, you don't have to prove anything.

Jack Kerouac

The Dharma Bums · 1958

★ 3.8

You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

Eleanor Roosevelt

1960

★ 3.8

Film · Action (film) · Crime (film) · Action · Crime

Just feel what the wave is doing. Then accept its energy. Get in sync and charge with it. You don't need to see.

Bodhi

Point Break · 1991

★ 3.8

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.

Steve Jobs

2005

★ 3.8

TV program · Comedy (TV) · Comedy

Never half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing.

Ron Swanson

Parks and Recreation · 2012

★ 3.8

TV program · Crime (TV) · Drama (TV) · Crime · Drama

If that's true, if you don't know who I am, then maybe your best course would be to tread lightly.

Walter White

Breaking Bad · 2013

★ 3.8

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.

Jesus

Matthew 6:19-20 · 60

★ 3.7

Sapere aude! Have the courage to use your own reason! This is the motto of the Enlightenment.

Immanuel Kant

What is Enlightenment? · 1784

★ 3.7

Play

What ought a man to be? Well, my short answer is "himself."

Henrik Ibsen

1867

★ 3.7

Personal journal

Whenever you find you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.

Mark Twain

1904

★ 3.7

Personal journal

Get up quickly-just switch on the white light of the will.

Susan Sontag

1973

★ 3.7

Film · Crime (film) · Drama (film) · Crime · Drama

Every day above ground is a good day.

Bernstein

Scarface · 1983

★ 3.7

Film · Drama (film) · Drama

Stop going for the easy buck and produce something with your life. Create, instead of living off the buying and selling of others.

Carl Fox

Wall Street · 1987

★ 3.7

You should always except the present company.

John O'Keeffe

The London Hermit · 1793

★ 3.6

As you pass from the tender years of youth into harsh and embittered manhood, make sure you take with you on your journey all the human emotions! Don't leave them on the road, for you will not pick them up afterwards!

Nikolai Gogol

Dead Souls · 1842

★ 3.6

Resolve to be thyself: and know, that he Who finds himself, loses his misery.

Matthew Arnold

1852

★ 3.6

Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.

William James

The Will to Believe · 1896

★ 3.6

Be a good animal, true to your animal instinct.

D.H. Lawrence

1911

★ 3.6

Call no man foe, but never love a stranger.

Stella Benson

This is the End · 1917

★ 3.6

Play

Don't be afraid of death so much as an inadequate life.

Bertolt Brecht

1931

★ 3.6